The sky around vdB 49 at true scale, north up and east left, with stars to magnitude 8. The circles show the field of a low-power eyepiece and of 10×50 binoculars.
vdB 49 is a reflection nebula in Orion, 1,650 light-years away
vdB 49 (LBN 894, DG 70) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion, 1,650 light-years away. spans 1.4° of sky, about 40 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in January.
Nebula: a cloud of gas and dust. Emission nebulae glow on their own, lit by ultraviolet light from hot young stars; reflection nebulae shine by starlight scattered from dust; dark nebulae block the light behind them.
vdB 49 is vdB 49 in the Van den Bergh catalog of reflection nebulae
Sidney van den Bergh listed it in his catalog of reflection nebulae (1966), drawn from the Palomar Sky Survey. He chose nebulae lit by a star bright enough to appear in the Bonner and Cordoba star catalogs. The star that lights it is Omega Ori, HD 37490, B3IIIe, magnitude 4.5. He rated it moderate in brightness and blue in color.
Finding vdB 49 from Betelgeuse
vdB 49 lies 5.2° southwest of Betelgeuse, the magnitude 0.5 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
vdB 49 is highest in the evening in January
The chart gives its height above the horizon at 9 pm through the year, from 60°N to 40°S. It can be seen from the whole northern hemisphere and south to about 86°S.
vdB 49 is 1,650 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 49 tonight left it about 1,650 years ago, around 376 AD. It ranks 84 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (506 pc).
